After a hard week of volume and motor pacing in preparation for more important races to come, the five core riders arrived in Orvault with no specific mission but to use this race as prep for the Côte Picarde World Cup race on Wednesday.

Along with the two Canucks Murray Carter and Francois Parisien, wearing the Pontivy Club colours, all were ready for a fast start with many attempts off the gun due to the relatively short distance and flat course. At the 20 km mark is when a break of 19 went up the road, which is also when Ryder Hesjedal was caught in a crash and had to chase back on. He managed to reintegrate the main group with no real problems, thanks to teammates who were waiting for him at the back of the pack. The unfortunate thing in all this was the fact that we had no representatives in the break. But as this race was not a goal, all just sat in the pack and let some other non-represented teams do some work.

Although work was being done to bring back the break, there was still a lack of cohesion amongst the chasers and so the break was continuing to nibble seconds. On the circuit it was apparent that the win would go to one of the now 16 riders from the break, as there was a 2min deficit that the pack had to make up. For the Canucks the circuit proved to be an opportunity to get the legs going by setting off some attacks to try and get some small chase groups going, but in the end all stayed status quo with the win going to a British cyclist racing with a team in Nantes.

With what we can call the prep races over and done with, it is time to get ready for the 2 UCI sanctioned races and the 3-day stage race. "La côte Picarde" is up next and it should prove to be a race where race savvy and good positioning pays off because of the high wind factor and the depth of the Espoir field.